By way of background, payment systems have been incorporated into fueling sites in order to allow a customer to pay for fuel and other goods and services (such as a car wash, fast food, or convenience store products) using a credit or debit card. Such payment systems comprise various input devices, such as card readers and PIN pads, which are configured to accept data necessary to process the payment. The customer may provide certain payment data by presenting a payment card bearing a magnetic stripe or chip to a payment card reader. Data stored on the payment card may include one or more of the following: a Primary Account Number (PAN), the cardholder's name, a service code, and the card's expiration date. Also, if required to complete the transaction, the customer may enter account information such as a personal identification number (PIN) using a PIN entry device (e.g, PIN pad). The system communicates the data to a remote host system responsible for the customer's account for verification.
Because of the continuing challenges fraud poses to customers, merchants, and banks, among others, payment card companies are requiring more and more security during payment card transactions. Thus, organizations that process, store, or transmit payment data must comply with certain industry standards. These industry standards typically require that input devices (e.g., card readers and PIN entry devices) meet certain physical security requirements, including containing an anti-removal mechanism, also known as a dismount sensor. In the past, these anti-removal mechanisms included cable-based switches positioned in hard to access locations which provided some degree of protection for both the cable and switch. Other anti-removal mechanisms included microswitches on the input device that closed when the input device was mounted to a structure. In either case, the input devices did not include security around the interface between the switch and the structure and did not provide enough inherent security to meet new, more demanding payment card company mandates.